Participants: Bill Santos
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201234
|
00:03 TEASER: At age 14 he ran away from home and fought in the French and Indian
00:06 War. 00:09 At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he joined the American army 00:13 as a colonel and in 1775 shared a command with Ethan Allen in the capture 00:17 of Ticonderoga. 00:20 Later he led 1000 men into Canada where he fought in the battle of Quebec. 00:26 His courage in battle won him a promotion to brigadier general. 00:30 But something went wrong. 00:33 Thoughts of compromise ate away at his patriotic zeal. 00:36 Soon the unthinkable happened. 00:39 He offered his services to the British, and in 1780 devised a plan to 00:44 surrender West Point to British control. 00:49 Today, instead of being remembered as a national hero, Benedict Arnold is 00:52 synonymous with "traitor." 01:11 ANNOUNCER: It has stood the test of time. 01:15 God's book: the Bible, 01:18 still relevant in today's complex world. 01:22 It Is Written, 01:25 sharing the messages of hope around the world. 01:39 Let me invite you to turn with me in your Bible to the tenth chapter of 01:44 Matthew this morning for our study of the Word of God. 01:48 In our progressing through this marvelous, marvelous gospel that opens the New 01:52 Testament we have been seeing how Jesus trained His twelve to be sent out 01:59 as the representatives of the Kingdom. 02:03 And as we come to chapter 10 He is ready to send them on their first 02:08 mission, to give them some on-the-job experience. 02:12 We have been noting the names of the twelve and we've stopped to take the 02:17 time to get to know them as much as is possible in the Word of God. 02:22 We're looking today at the last name in the list in verse 4, the name Judas 02:30 Iscariot. 02:33 Let me read from Matthew 10:1 - 5a 03:07 Now we have met already the first eleven disciples. 03:11 We had set about to learn everything that we could learn about them. 03:15 Some of them have a lot of information, some of them little or none. 03:19 But we've tried to look at their personalities and their character and how 03:23 they fit into the scheme of things and the plan of our Lord and why they were 03:27 selected for such an incredibly marvelous task. 03:32 The one thing, I think, that we have concluded in general is that they were 03:36 basically unqualified. 03:38 They were basically common men just like we are. 03:41 Men whom God had to transform in order to make them into what He wanted 03:46 them to be. 03:48 And we saw how our Lord overcame their commonness and enabled them to preach 03:54 and to teach and to heal and to cast out demons as the official 03:57 representatives of the Kingdom. 04:01 And I might add that they were successful, oh, they were highly successful. 04:05 Under the energy of the Spirit of God they pulled off that which Christ had 04:10 asked them to do, they built His church. 04:13 They were a remarkable group. 04:16 But one of them stands out against the background of the others. 04:20 He is isolated. 04:22 He is lonely. 04:23 He is alone. 04:25 His name is Judas Iscariot. 04:28 He is a horrifying, colossal, misfit. 04:30 He is the epitome of disaster. 04:34 He is the vilest, wickedest man the Bible knows anything about and 04:38 he is our subject this morning. 04:41 He is listed last, you'll notice, in verse 4. 04:44 And he is always listed with a comment about his betrayal, because that was 04:46 his brand and will be for all time. 04:51 Let's examine what the Bible says about him. 04:54 First of all, his name, Judas, a common name. 04:58 Lebbaeus Thaddaeus in verse 3 is also called Judas. 05:02 It is simply a form of Judah, the land of God's people. 05:06 Some say the root of it means 'Jehovah leads' and others think the root of 05:10 it might refer to 'one who is the object of praise'. 05:15 But what a paradox either way. 05:18 If it means Jehovah leads there never was one who was more obviously led by 05:22 Satan than was Judas. 05:26 If it means one worth of praise there is never lived one more unworthy of 05:31 praise than Judas. 05:34 It says his name is not only Judas but Iscariot. 05:39 What does that mean? 05:41 Basically it comes from two terms ish meaning man and Kerioth meaning town. 05:44 He was a man of the town of Kerioth. 05:48 That is simply a geographical identification. 05:52 Why is it that Judas is identified geographically and the other eleven are 05:59 not? 06:01 It's important because he is the only non-Galilean. 06:05 He is the only Jew from the southern section. 06:08 He is the only Judean Jew. 06:10 All of the rest came from Galilee. 06:13 And this may indicate to us that from the very beginning Judas was never 06:16 really one of the boys. 06:19 Also, the southern Jews felt themselves greatly superior to the rural Jews 06:24 of the north and would have looked down on them and consequently there may 06:30 have been a certain amount of pride involved which deepened as time went on. 06:35 Author E.G. White in her book on the life of Jesus, "Desire of Ages" writes 06:40 the following (page 717) 06:59 Twenty-three miles south of Jerusalem, seven miles from Hebron was a little 07:03 group of tiny villages. 07:05 They were built near farms where the people cultivated the soil. 07:09 As the little villages congregated together and grew they became one 07:13 little town and that little town became known as Kerioth. 07:18 And in Joshua 15:25 it is mentioned. 07:21 And it was that little village that gave birth to this man. 07:25 Seven miles from Hebron a little child was born that was one day to betray the 07:30 Savior. 07:33 From his name we look at his call secondly. 07:39 And I hasten to add that the call of Judas is not recorded in the Bible. 07:44 We meet him the first time right here in this list and we don't know how he 07:48 got in the group. 07:51 We know he wanted to be involved but we don't know how it was that he 07:54 attached himself to Jesus. 07:56 Apparently he was attracted to Jesus, that's obvious. 07:58 He followed Him. 08:00 He stayed with Him. 08:02 And he stayed with Him longer than a lot of the other false disciples who 08:05 bailed out much earlier than this. 08:09 In fact, in John 6, it says there were many disciples who followed 08:14 Jesus but when He demanded total commitment out of them it says, 08:22 But the twelve, it says, remained. 08:26 So, even when Jesus called for all-out commitment, even when He made total 08:30 demand on them and many of them left, Judas stuck it out. 08:35 He stayed. 08:37 Now one thing is certain, Jesus knew Judas would betray Him. 08:42 The Old Testament predicted that one of His own would betray Him. 08:45 Psalm 41:9 08:58 If you look into the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 11 it even gets 09:01 more specific. 09:06 Zechariah 11:12 09:28 Betrayed by His own friend for thirty pieces of silver. 09:32 Now outwardly Judas didn't appear to have defective character. 09:36 I'm sure of that. 09:39 Three years he was with the disciples and Jesus said in the upper room in 09:43 John 13, He said: "One of you will betray Me." 09:46 And all the Apostles responded. 09:48 Do you remember how they responded? 09:50 Did they say - Is it Judas? 09:52 No, everyone of them said - Is it I? 09:55 Why? 09:57 They had no more reason to suspect Judas then they had reason to suspect 10:03 themselves. 10:05 They knew better about themselves and they assumed better about 10:08 Judas, he was a fantastic hypocrite. 10:14 He was so good at it they elected him treasurer of the group. 10:17 They gave him the money. 10:18 That's how much they trusted him. 10:21 You say - Well, didn't they know he must have had a rotten, sinful 10:28 background if he was such a rotten wretched vile man that he would do this to 10:32 Christ, he must have had a track record that was horrifying? 10:36 Yeah, but it wasn't at the worst any worse than any other ones. 10:42 It's hard to be much worse than Matthew who was an extortioner and a thief 10:45 and took bribes. 10:47 It would be hard to be much worse than Simon the Zealot who was an 10:49 assassin. 10:52 So you know, they were all kind of a crummy bunch if you look at it that way. 10:56 It's interesting to me that he never has a word to say until he complains 11:00 about the waste of money in Bethany. 11:03 He had the same potential as any of the others. 11:06 He could have been a John or a Peter or whatever. 11:10 I mean, Christ could have transformed him if his heart had been willing. 11:14 He was the same raw material, he was no more unqualified than anybody 11:18 else. 11:20 But the same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay and while the other 11:24 men were being melted and molded he was being hardened. 11:29 Now I would hasten to add to you that he is no different than the other 11:34 twelve. 11:35 They all believed that the Messiah had come. 11:38 They all believed the Messiah would bring an earthly Kingdom. 11:42 They all believed the Messiah would overthrow Rome, He would establish 11:48 the Kingdom and they would enter into the glory of the Kingdom. 11:52 They all believed that they had met the lion of the tribe of Judah. 11:56 But the Lord began to tell them that before He was the lion of the tribe of 12:01 Judah, He had to be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 12:07 And He talked about dying. 12:09 And He talked about giving His life. 12:12 And He talked about being lifted up. 12:15 And whenever He talked about that you could just hear Judas saying - What 12:19 is this? 12:21 You see, the other disciples started where he started. 12:25 But the Lord lifted them to a spiritual plain, Judas never got there. 12:31 The Lord elevated them to a spiritual Kingdom to see things in a divine 12:36 dimension, but Judas never got off the crass materialistic earthly 12:42 level, he was the epitome of a crass materialist. 12:46 The other disciples had worldliness - yes, and greed and selfishness, but 12:50 it was overcome by the love of Christ. 12:54 And they began to love Him and in their love for Him He lifted them to another 12:58 level. 12:59 Well, it never happened in Judas' life. 13:02 Greed and selfishness and materialisú and worldliness conquered 13:05 love. 13:07 And the others were lifted and he stayed. 13:10 The others became uncorrupted and he became more corrupted, more 13:12 greedy. 13:15 He had at the root of his character a terrible, terrible passion and he 13:19 never was willing to relinquish it. 13:25 In John chapter 12, we're coming to the final events, moving to the 13:30 cross, Judas is utterly and totally disillusioned. 13:35 The anticipation of anything good coming had totally removed itself 13:38 from him. 13:41 There was nothing good left and he no longer could contain his 13:44 hypocrisy, he could no longer mask the vile, filthy, wretched soul that 13:50 was within him and so in Bethany there was an incident that unmasked 13:53 him. 13:55 I don't think the disciples really picked up on it. 13:58 John 12:3 14:15 She was just pouring out love, just pouring out affection. 14:20 She gave this very costly thing to Jesus and it's something that was once 14:24 used and then forever gone. 14:27 John 12: 4 - 5 14:45 This is the first time the man every speaks. 14:48 He hated Jesus so deeply now that he couldn't stand any homage paid to Him. 14:52 The hate had taken over. 14:56 What started as attraction and love and fascination had turned to hate. 15:00 Because Jesus didn't do what he expected. 15:04 By the way, it may not have been worth quite three hundred, that may 15:09 have been his exaggeration because of the greed of his heart and in order to 15:12 overstate his case for affect. 15:15 If it was it was three hundred denarii it would be nearly a year's wages 15:19 worth of ointment. 15:22 John 12:6 15:37 Can you imagine that kind of a guy? 15:41 Here's a poor band of people going around doing good and he was stealing 15:44 out of their resources. 15:46 He had absolutely no love for them. 15:50 He was a materialist and he was in life for one thing - what he could get 15:54 out of it and he got it any way he could. 15:57 And if he wasn't going to get the whole Kingdom, he was going to get a few 16:01 bucks getting out. 16:03 That's the basic motive of Judas. 16:07 And some people have tried to ascribe to him a good motive, you cannot ascribe 16:11 to Judas a good motive anytime in anyway for two reasons. 16:20 One, Jesus said - One of you is a devil; Two, before he betrayed Him 16:23 Jesus said, "And Satan entered into him." 16:26 There was nothing good about him. 16:28 John 18, the next time we see Judas. 16:30 A few nights later Jesus is in the garden, verse 2: 16:41 Judas not only profaned the Passover with blood money, he profaned the 16:45 private place of devotion for our dear Lord. 16:49 He profaned friendship. 16:51 He knew the place. 16:52 Verses 3 & 4 17:13 You see, Jesus knew that Judas was going to come in and he was going to come 17:18 up to Jesus and he was going to kiss Him. 17:22 Judas would kiss Him to put Him at ease so He wouldn't think anything 17:25 was up. 17:26 Jesus knew all that. 17:27 So you know what He did? 17:29 He removed the necessity for the kiss. 17:31 He walked out and said - "Whom seek ye? 17:34 " And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 17:37 And He said, "I am He. 17:39 " Thus eliminating the need for a kiss. 17:42 But just to show you the pit of blackness in the heart of Judas, he kissed 17:46 Him anyway. 17:49 The diabolical heart forced him into that unnecessary kiss even 17:54 though it was no longer a kiss to point Him out, it was a kiss to fake his 17:59 innocence a supreme act of hypocrisy. 18:04 Some lessons learned from the life of Judas? 18:07 Number one, Judas is the world's greatest example of lost opportunity. 18:12 No man ever, ever, ever is a greater tragedy than that man. 18:17 Twelve men in human history have the privilege of walking three years in 18:22 the presence of the living God incarnate and he missed it. 18:25 The other eleven got it. 18:26 Incredible. 18:30 And there are people who will sit in the presence of Christians and thus in 18:34 the presence of Christ, there are fathers in families and mothers in 18:40 families and people in.... in churches who come and go and live their life - 18:44 around them are all these people in whom dwells the living Christ and they 18:48 lose that opportunity and go into eternity without Him. 18:51 But Judas is the worst. 18:55 And those who continue to miss the opportunity are in the line of Judas. 19:00 He was content to associate - nothing more. 19:03 Secondly, he is the world's greatest example of wasted privilege. 19:09 He wanted money, he wanted riches, he wanted possessions, he could have 19:12 possessed the universe forever but he sold it for ten or twenty dollars. 19:18 God offers you and every soul the riches of eternity. 19:22 What kind of a stupid bargain are you making? 19:26 By saying no to that to say yes to some pittance that will burn in the end 19:30 of this earth. 19:35 Thirdly, Judas is the world's greatest illustration of the love 19:39 of money as the root of evil. 19:43 He loved money so much that he actually sold the living God. 19:46 That's how far greed can take a man. 19:50 He is a monument to the destructiveness and the damnation of greed. 19:55 Fourthly, and this is turning the corner, I believe Judas is the 20:02 greatest lesson in the history of the world of the forbearing patient 20:05 love of God. 20:09 Only God could have known what He knew and tolerated that man's presence that 20:13 long. 20:16 That is the patient forbearance of God. 20:19 And then to have reached out in affection to him and offer him the sop and 20:22 even after the kiss said to him -Friend. 20:25 Incredible insight into the patience of God. 20:30 The Bible tells us that Christ was perfected through suffering, that He 20:36 became a sympathetic high priest. 20:39 Many men are betrayed, many men are wounded in the house of their 20:43 friends. 20:46 People cut people up and all of us have known the hurt and the pain of that 20:49 kind of thing. 20:52 And when we go to the Lord Jesus and we say -You know, I've had this happen 20:56 in my life, do You understand? 20:58 You can know for certain He understands. 21:07 One day i saw, a potter and some clay, 21:15 he molded it,fashioned it, and caused it to obey, 21:23 and soon he had, a vessel he could use, 21:31 it held his food it brought him life, no water he would loose, 21:39 but then i heard the vessel slipped and fell, 21:47 it's broken know, no one know's how to put it back again, 21:55 oh my life, was like, that vessel made of clay, 22:03 it fell apart and my broken heart knew i'd always go astray... 22:11 But Jesus made my vessel over, 22:19 Lord He made this vessel over, 22:26 Jesus made my vessel over 22:35 He made this vessel over again.... 22:44 And now i know, his spirit lives in me 22:50 we're closer now i don't know how, 22:55 He saw what i could be, 22:59 if you've seen my life in pieces on the floor, 23:06 I wept inside no place to hide, 23:12 'till Jesus said ther's more... 23:15 And He made my vessel over, 23:23 Lord you made this vessel over, 23:30 Lord you made my vessel over 23:38 You made this vessel over again.... 23:46 Jesus made my vessel over, 23:54 Lord He made this vessel over, 24:02 Jesus made my vessel over 24:11 Lord you made this vessel over again. 24:23 >>Bill: Let us pray. 24:25 Father we thank for this time together today. 24:27 We have studied a sobering message today and I pray that if anyone today has 24:33 not accepted Jesus fully that they will open up their heart and receive 24:38 Christ, ask His forgiveness right now and invite Him to be their 24:43 Lord and Savior. 24:45 Bless each and every viewer I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 25:31 >>Allen: What kind of people can God use? 25:33 Any kind! 25:35 All we have to do is make ourselves available. 25:38 That means there is hope for you and me. 25:42 Pastor Bill has written a book "All the King's men", it includes all of the 25:47 messages in this series, we would like to send it to you, here is the 25:50 information you need to get your free copy. 26:53 >>Bill: Well we have come to the end of another It Is Written program, I want 26:56 to thank you for taking this half hour to join us. 26:59 We have come to the end of this series about the lives of the disciples and 27:03 if you have not gone on the web site yet to get study guide and the DVD 27:08 and the book, please do that. 27:11 We would be happy to send that to you for a donation of fifty dollars to the 27:14 ministry of It Is Written Canada. 27:18 Please know that the fifty dollars goes to support this ministry and help us 27:20 stay on the air. 27:23 While on the web site you can look at all the programs, you can send a 27:26 prayer request, you can make a donation, you can find out where our team 27:28 will be appearing. 27:30 You can also see all of our program on our You Tube channel 27:33 "Youtube.com/IIWCanada". 27:36 Why not refer a friend to our You Tube site where they can see these and 27:40 other programs -- all of our programs are there. 27:43 You can also follow us on twitter. 27:46 I pray that we will have the privilege of being together once again next 27:49 week where we can study God's word. 27:52 Until then you remember this.... It Is Written, man shall not live by 27:56 bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 28:04 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ |
Revised 2015-02-06